Taiwan bans visitors from Chinese mainland

THE TAIWANESE government is to prevent people entering the island from mainland China in a bid to protect its home grown industries from economic damage.

Meanwhile, as we reported some weeks ago, one wire is reporting that the organisers are considering postponing or even cancelling Computex.

See Sars risk may cause Computex postponement.

Visitors from Guangdong, Beijing, Shanxi and inner Mongolia will be prevented from entering the country, but the ban won't apply to Hong Kong, Macau, or people who change flights at HK, reports the Economic News. But people who have stayed over in Hong Kong will be excluded. That's despite advice from the the Taiwanese Department of Health, which advised visitors from these spots should also be excluded.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese manufacturers are switching their production of PC kit from mainland Chinese subcontractors, the same paper says.

And it is also reporting another government industry as saying that the GDP of Taiwan may fall to under two percent if the SARS scare continues. µ

See Also
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SARS epidemic could cripple IT industry
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Deadly pneumonia starts affecting hi-tech biz